Toward integrating private conservation lands into national protected area systems: Lessons from a megadiversity country

Abstract

Private conservation lands are essential for protecting biodiversity, but few national‐level studies have assessed their coverage and the legal frameworks that support them. Here, we review the legal mechanisms enabling conservation on private lands in Brazil and evaluate these lands' potential to reinforce the national protected area system. We found that conserving native vegetation on private lands is the most important mechanism to protect biodiversity in five out of the six Brazilian biomes. Because Brazil has a law that mandates landowners to set aside conservation areas, remnants of native vegetation were protected rather than converted to other land uses in areas of old economic frontiers. These remnants can be the cornerstones of effective regional conservation systems. Still, upgrading these remnants to privately protected areas and integrating these privately protected areas into the national protected area system remains a challenge. We suggest that the Brazilian experience provides important lessons on how other countries can design innovative policies to recognize and expand private land conservation.

The distribution and conservation of areas with microendemic species in a biodiversity hotspot: a multi-taxa approach

“…Thus, we suggest three general actionable guidelines: (1) zero deforestation policies should be adopted for all AMs with native vegetation, (2) AMs with native vegetation and no conservation effort should be considered priorities for establishment as new protected areas, and (3) AMs with no native vegetation should be priorities for ecological restoration. Direct government action is limited and expensive, particularly because the private sector owns most of the Atlantic Forest ( Freitas et al, 2018 ), so to ensure the region’s long-term preservation, the private sector must establish a comprehensive network of private reserves that are carefully planned by using the most reliable scientific data available ( Silva, Pinto & Scarano, 2021 ).…”

Composition, richness and nestedness of gallery forest bird assemblages in an Amazonian savanna landscape: lessons for conservation

“…In Brazil, for instance, there is a modern conservation law that regulates the use of native ecosystems on private lands (Law N°.12,651/12). This law considers gallery forests to be APPs (Áreas de Proteção Permanente or Permanent Preservation Areas), which are areas set aside to forever preserve water resources, stability (of the landscape, soil, and geology), biodiversity (facilitating the gene flow of fauna and flora), and human well-being ( Silva, Pinto & Scarano, 2021 ). The law defines parameters ( e.g ., river widths, slopes, and altitude) for landowners to demarcate these APPs, but the management of the savanna matrix and the inclusion of savanna conservation buffers around gallery forests are not included among these parameters.…”

A legal assessment of private land conservation in South America

“…Few studies have focused on the legal aspects, and those that exist are either outdated (Chacón, 2008; Langholz, 1996; Swift et al., 2004) or contain errors, such as incorrect legal status of PPAs (Hora et al., 2018). Thus, it is important to update understanding and analyze South America's legislation pertaining to PPAs to evaluate how well supported these initiatives are by national governments (Silva et al., 2021). We focused on levels of landowner commitment and governmental support provided to those engaged in private land conservation.…”